återkompilering

Återkompilering, or recompilation, is the process of translating source code from a high-level programming language into machine code or another lower-level form that a computer can execute. This is a fundamental step in software development, as computers cannot directly understand human-readable code. The source code is written by programmers using languages like C++, Java, or Python. A special program called a compiler then reads this source code and, if there are no errors, produces an executable file.

The process typically involves several stages, including lexical analysis, parsing, semantic analysis, optimization, and code generation. Lexical analysis breaks the code into tokens, parsing checks the grammatical structure, and semantic analysis verifies the meaning. Optimization aims to make the generated code more efficient in terms of speed and memory usage. Finally, code generation produces the machine code specific to a particular processor architecture.

Recompilation is necessary whenever changes are made to the source code. After modifying the code, the programmer must recompile it to create an updated executable version. This ensures that the program reflects the latest modifications. In some cases, incremental compilation is used, where only the changed parts of the code and their dependencies are recompiled, saving time. Automated build systems often manage the recompilation process to streamline development workflows.